IT hubs to attract FDI in office realty

Mumbai: Leading IT hubs in India such as Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune are expected to attract the highest amount of investment in office assets in 2017, as outsourcing will continue to push demand for quality commercial space, Cushman & Wakefield said on Thursday.

According to it, the Asia-Pacific region is likely to attract investment to the tune of $611 billion, 44 per cent of the total global real estate investment volume of $1.39 trillion expected in 2017 with India likely to emerge as a key beneficiary.

In the office sector, C&W noted that core markets such as Sydney, Melbourne and Tokyo remain favoured while in emerging markets, cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangkok are well placed to outperform.  

In 2016, the total investment made by global real estate investors in India stood at $4.87 billion, up 3 per cent from $4.7 billion invested in 2016. The trend is expected to continue in 2017 as well.

“Despite the withdrawal of high-value bank notes resulting in a short-term fall in economics activities, global investors are still optimistic about the Indian market. This is because they believe that the reduction in grey market economy post demonetisation along with the strong electoral victory registered by the ruling party would strengthen Modi’s hand to push through reforms to boost long-term economic potential. Most of the global investment for this year will be made in commercial office assets as markets in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune are well placed to outperform other cities from emerging economies in Asia Pacific,” said Siddharth Goel, senior director, research at C&W.

It added that the region as a whole is expected to see positive volume growth in 2017 as it is in a stronger position than in the past cycles with economic resilience generally up due to economic reforms, lower levels of inflation and reduced current account deficit.